Perhaps I’m the only strange person who, when reading the gospels, thinks “where’s the chapters and verses that tell of Jesus and the disciples doing really mundane daily activities? Where’s the accounts of Peter sweeping the floors or Matthew grocery shopping?” Certainly there were moments of humdrum and typical day to day activities that they left out for sake of pointing out the truly important matters.

But then in the 11th chapter of Mark’s gospel we find this rather gloriously unimaginative moment in the life of Jesus! Upon first read I released a victorious “AHAH!”

Sadly, after reading it over and in the greater context of the surrounding scriptures I found this wasn’t innocuous at all, instead it was incredibly uninnocuous.

So Jesus came to Jerusalem and went into the Temple. After looking around carefully at everything, he left because it was late in the afternoon. Then he returned to Bethany with the twelve disciples. Mark 11:11 NLT

You may be wondering, “why in the world does this matter?” but I challenge you to consider what was happening when Jesus went into the temple that day. Jesus went into the temple and He found the money changers doing their thing, the animal cartel doing their business, and He found the corruption which broke His Father’s heart.

He found exactly what we remember from the scene in scripture where Jesus went into the temple turning over tables, chasing people out with a whip, but here – on this day – Jesus looks around and “he left”.

Certainly, the emotions were hot that day, we must believe that His righteous indignation was incensed but instead of seizing the opportunity and the moment, He waited.

We know, from John 2:15, that Jesus made a whip; He took the time and the energy to carefully handcraft a whip. (If you’re interested in what goes into making a rope whip, check out this Youtube instructional video)

We can imagine Him carefully listening to the Father while He prayed, receiving instructions. Then, in Mark 11:12-16 we read how Jesus went back the next day and drove them out with that VERY whip He had spent time working to create.

John’s gospel isn’t 100% clear on when the whip was made, it could be interpreted that “making a whip” or “made a whip” was something that happened in the past (it is imperfect third person); I like to think that after visiting the temple on the previous day, He went back to Bethany and started work on the whip, as this process isn’t a quick or simple task that can be completed in a rage.

Which brings me to the main point of this very uninnocuous verse; Jesus didn’t act rashly in Mark 11:11 when He encountered the money changers, nor was He acting in a rage in Mark 11:15. That isn’t to say that He wasn’t angry, nor does it suggest that He didn’t turn over tables or bring a whip! Rather, He was behaving as the righteous judge cleansing the temple and in acting in the fullness of His faculties, totally in control of His emotions and actions, fully engaged in the Father’s work, and hearing from God.

I believe that thismay be the big “take-away”; we should avoid at all costs reacting (if Jesus didn’t react and He’s our Master – perhaps we should take that as an example for us to follow) but instead only respond to what God speaks to us about how we should respond.

Are there some areas of your life which you have allowed yourself to react to situations thus considering yourself more privileged than Jesus? How are you doing with making God’s instruction your priority?

Imagine the church filled with people who refuse to react and insist on only responding to God’s instruction, unmoved by situations and circumstances!

When someone gives you news that you don’t want to hear such as their serious medical diagnosis, the passing of someone you love, news of a close friend or family member moving far away, or of a marriage ending, it’s difficult to process the initial thoughts and feelings.

An audible gasp, followed by murmuring and furrowed brows swept across the room where the disciples were finishing the Passover meal after Jesus told them that He will be going away soon.

I remember when Kim and I told my family and friends that our family was moving 1,500 miles away, to Maine in order to plant a church; their reactions were understandable. The proverbial shoe had long ago been “put on the other foot” when at least three of my siblings had left to live in different parts of the United States. I totally understood what I felt in those moments when I found out, (one of them only left me a note to tell me they were leaving); I had no difficulty empathizing as they expressed their feelings.

The gravity of the situation around the Passover Meal in John 13 and 14 is intensified by Jesus’ command for the disciples to love each other in the same way (or capacity) which He has loved them.

It reminds me of how we would beg our kids “love each other, treat each other like you love each other, be good to each other” just before we would go on a date.

He tells them that if they love each other people will know that they are His disciples. Certainly, the disciples must have thought “yes, but… if you’re around, they will know that we’re your disciples… wait…what’s going on here?!”

These men had abandoned everything, they were part of a movement which stood in direct opposition to the established religion, left their families and their occupations, stood beside Jesus as He made some pretty incredible claims (most of which they didn’t understand at first); even if they wanted to, they would never be accepted back into society again.

The panic and anxiety in the room was reaching a fervor as the loving Master offered these words to His friends,

“Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in Me.” John 14:1 ESV

First, Jesus addresses their feelings of panic and their anxiety by telling them to calm down and choose to not LET their hearts be troubled or stressed out. In our moments of anxiety we need to recognize that ultimately, we have a choice.

Then, Jesus points back to the Father and commands them as if saying, “No matter what, always believe in God – trust in God, don’t let anything sway your faith in God.” This isn’t a suggestion on how to get through this, it’s a command. Believe in God – this is absolute foundational truth for us to get to the next step. If you can believe in God then you can believe in Jesus, whom God sent.

Finally, He follows up by telling them to take that same unshakeable faith and apply it to Him. He’s not asking them to believe in some ethereal concept or ideology – He’s asking them to believe IN Him.

My precious wife and children have had some pretty big favors asked of them by me; many times I’ve required them to “believe in me” as we made some major life decisions over the years.

One of the greatest compliments I’ve ever received has been my wife telling me that she believes in me. I know that she believes in my ability to make decisions, trusts that I have her’s and my family’s best interests in mind, and she believes that I know how to hear from God.

It’s important that we understand that Jesus isn’t asking us to simply acknowledge some new information or to assent to some new philosophy; He is asking us to believe IN Him. Jewish people understood what it meant to believe in God (they had that under control) but believing in Jesus in the same way was a new thing.

I would argue that it’s a new thing for some Christians.

Jesus isn’t asking us to simply acknowledge some new information or to assent to some new philosophy; He is asking us to believe IN Him.

If I told you that I scheduled my first home invasion through Jim Bob’s Home Invasion…you would tell me that I’ve lost my mind! Literally no one schedules their own home invasion! The truth is that no one knows when it’s going to happen! Jesus addresses this in Luke 12:39-40

39 “Understand this: If a homeowner knew exactly when a burglar was coming, he would not permit his house to be broken into.40 You also must be ready all the time, for the Son of Man will come when least expected.”

The point is that we are to be ready because just like a home invasion, you don’t know when He is coming!

There’s no need to panic – as far as I can tell there are really three critical things every believer needs to be doing… (without oversimplification)

Ultimately we are given three directives; love God, love people and draw people to Jesus. Certainly there are other disciplines which grow our relationship with God like daily Bible reading, worship, and prayer but when you boil it all down if you love really God you’re going to do those things anyway. If you love people, you’re going to have to address the sinful attitudes and habits in your life to better love them, and if you love people you are going to be drawing them into a relationship with Jesus.

So, if you are doing the above three things… more than likely you’re ready! If you’re not, now’s the time! Since we don’t know when Jesus will return, there’s no time to waste – begin today by loving God, loving people, and drawing them into a loving relationship with God.

How do we love God? Think of how you express love to people – spend time with Him (prayer, reading, and worship), spend time with His people (go to church), learn to hear His voice, invest into His church (give tithes and offerings)

How do we love people? This is basic. Put other people before you, serve and don’t command or demand, spend time and build relationships, ask questions, meet needs as you’re able, don’t think yourself better than them, and most of all pray for them.

How do we draw people to Jesus? Pretty much doing the above makes you the most attractive thing in the world to thirsty souls. You attract more flies with honey than vinegar, so love God and love people. The bottom line is somewhere in your relationship, you will need to tell them about how Jesus has changed your life. You don’t have to have a doctoral degree to manage this – just tell them what happened in YOUR life. Tell them how it happened, what you prayed, and how you have lived since. Boom. Done.

There are probably a hundred different approaches like the “Roman’s Road”, the “ABC’s”, etc. but if you are honestly listening to God He will give you what needs to be said.

Get out there – love God, love people, and draw them to Christ! Be ready for Him!

If you are kind only to your friends,how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that. Matthew 5:47 NLT

Love should be this incredible easy thing, something you just experience and give so freely, a feeling that flows uncontrollably from others and from us with absolutely zero effort.

Wouldn’t that be nice?

Unfortunately that is not the case, people can be decidedly unlovely, making it difficult to choose to love them when love hasn’t been shown. But that seems to be the problem doesn’t it? We tend to treat love like there’s a prerequisite of love shown in order to show love, or at least like it needs to be reciprocated in order for us to continue to show love.

Christians aren’t supposed to allow circumstances to dictate whether or not we show love to other people because while were still sinners we were shown the most intense love imaginable (actually beyond our imagination). It is an act most ungrateful to behave unlovely towards other people, regardless of their actions.

When we refrain or withhold love from people we have effectively stopped loving them. We make light of this when we excuse our actions based on other people, when there is no excuse for us.

“Even pagans do that” isn’t meant to be a slight against pagans as we know them today, rather an observation, made by Jesus, of people who had not been transformed by God’s love who had shown love to their friends. The point isn’t about pagans, it’s a reference to how we (who’ve experienced the power of God) should behave differently than those who haven’t.

Jesus’ question is, of course, timely for us, “how are you different”? I invite you and I to ask ourselves that very important question today.

How are you different?

In what ways are you showing love to unlovely? In what ways are you expressing the power of Christ in you?

Many of us have goals we work hard to complete so we can mark them off our list each day; career minded people have different goals than a stay at home mom, a student has different goals each day than a retiree.

Some people aren’t just interested in fishing their goals for the day; they’re on a mission!

The Blues Brothers coined the phrase “We’re on a mission from God!” which has widely been accepted as a phrase people use when they are filled with incredible determination to see something accomplished, regardless of what it may take.

Are you on a mission in your life? What is driving you? What is the singularly most important goal in your life?

I only ask because when Jesus came to earth he came, as did the Blues Brothers, on a mission from God. In fact, he expresses in chapter six of the Gospel of John that while he was on earth he had no intention fulfilling his own desires or wishes, only the will of the Father.

Logic demands that we consider Jesus’ words, “a servant ism’t greater than his Master” (John 15:20) therefore if our Master determined in His heart to follow the will of His Father, shouldn’t we determine to follow in His steps and make His mission our mission?

Our mission and Jesus’ mission should look identical!

If Jesus was emphatic about us being a people who loved others….

I’m just suggesting that hate shouldn’t even have a seat in our mental dining table. If Jesus blatantly told us to make disciples of everyone we meet, I’m thinking that we should be much more prepared to love people, build a relationship with them and lead them to Jesus.

What might a goal list look like that makes Jesus’ mission OUR mission? Oddly normal, just your motivation for your actions will have changed.

Go to the work (get there early so I can build relationships)

Grab dinner at a fast food (Go inside so I can have a chance to chat with someone)

call Bob (develop that friendship – maybe lead him to Jesus)

Finish “Gotham” (so I can have something fun to break the ice with Larry who loves Gotham)

Our seemingly mundane and terribly normal activities are suddenly transformed into spectacular spiritual service when it is motivated out of love for Jesus and love for the people for whom He died; when His mission becomes our mission life explodes with purpose we’ve never experienced!

This is the third week of Advent; we are turning our attention to JOY this week!

Often times we confuse happiness and joy; before assumptions start flying… I’m not against happiness – it’s pretty important too! That said, I’ve found there’s an incredible difference between the two.

Here’s some examples which will help to draw the distinction between the two:

someone who is “unhappy” in their marriage can still find “joy” in their children or grandchildren.

someone who is “unhappy” in their profession can find “joy” in a hobby

someone who is “unhappy” with their physical or mental condition can find “joy” in a friendship.

Unfortunately, each of these “joys” are very temporary – children grow up (and out), interests in hobbies wane, and friendships tend to fade over time as well. The joy we cultivate and experience is horrifically temporary.

But there is a REAL and lasting joy for anyone who believes and follows Jesus. On John’s gospel, the fifteenth chapter we find this beautiful gem,

This verse tells us that Jesus’ joy has been placed in us! The exciting part of that is that Jesus’ joy isn’t temporary, it is eternal! Who is going to steal His joy? Who will rob Jesus of His joy? No one!

As we begin to focus on the joy He’s placed in us (not our temporal joy), we find that our joy is full or complete; no more working tirelessly to cultivate joy only to have it taken from us or wear off over time – Jesus in you gives you joy, REAL and complete joy.

Tap into that joy this week by worshipping, reading, and prayer, turning your attention away from circumstances and onto what He’s already placed in you. You don’t have to muster up this joy – it’s already there!

We were singing the song, “Good, Good Father” the other night at church; when we sang the lyrics, “and I’m loved by You, that’s who I am” my heart jumped. What a statement of identity! I AM KNOWN AS ONE WHO IS LOVED BY GOD!

I’m very quick to admit my identity as a husband, father, grandfather, and Pastor… but how often do I offer up, “Oh, also I’m someone who God loves”?

It reeks of arrogance but it is actually a very true statement! How would it change the way I perceive, well… everything if I started to think like that? If God’s love for me personally was an identifying point of my psyche, how would I begin to behave differently, think differently, respond differently?

When I married my wife, Kim, I began to think as a married man. After our first child was born the reality of my new identity as “Father” began to set in. I think you get the picture.

I’m not basing this line of thinking off of a song, there’s actual scriptural reference to this concept.

See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are! 1 John 3:1 NLT

What about you? Do you identify as a child of God? Does the fact that God identifies you as one of His children change you? In what ways might your status as “one who is loved by God” change the way you think or worship?

Isn’t it amazing how quickly renewals happen? It seems like you just joined and it’s already time to renew your subsciption or license, membership or affiliation. If you don’t renew you will be cut off from all the benefits of that organization, service, or priviledge.

The same is true in our walk with God. We are constantly in a need for renewal! It seems like our attitudes and thoughts are our greatest testimony against us, which is why, in the book of Ephesians, Paul warns us to RENEW!

The operative word in this verse is “let”; we must LET Holy Spirit do the renewing that we so desperately need. He won’t barge in and change things for us, we must surrender and LET Him do what is needed.

Are you willing to LET Holy Spirit renew your thoughts, your attitude today? Have you considered how badly you need it to happen?

Tax collectors and other notorious sinners often came to listen to Jesus teach.

The real question is, “Why?”. Why did they come to hear Him? Jesus’ message was a simple message of repentance, which I’m not sure if you know this or not, is not an attractive message with most people who are struggling in sin, or dead in their sins.

So why did they “often” come to hear Him?

As notorious as the sinners were for sinning, Jesus was a notoriously loving person. In fact, He is love. They were attracted to Him because He loved them more than their sins. He treated them better than the establishment of religion would ever dare to treat them.

He loved them unconditionally.

What would it look like for you to be attractive to sinners? Some automatically assume that to be attractive means to appeal to their senses or desires. Instead what if we appealed to the one common need every of human? Love.

What if we loved them as Christ loved them? In fact, they are the reason for the gospel! Just as you were once!

I challenge you to consider the way which you come across to agnostics, atheists, all unbelievers, those who believe differently than you.

We change our minds and turn our backs on people with nearly no regard for consequences.

We will lie to people we love to keep from being discovered, gain more favor, or make them feel better about a situation.

I realize that this is hardly breaking news, not only have we all experienced someone else treating us this way, but we’ve all been the one who has treated others this way. After years of use and abuse of these attributes, we’ve learned not to fully trust anyone because ANYONE is capable of hurting us, and we are capable of hurting others as well.

We begin to see life through the unfocused lense of doubt and mistrust; this is perfectly understandable, even defensible, behavior given how we humans tend to treat each other.

Trouble ensues, however when we think of God as a human; we engage in personification, treating something which isn’t human like it is human. We see this when someone dresses up their dog and uses little baby voices and speaking on behalf of the dog. “Ohhh…. I’m so glad to see you mommy!”

Why is this an issue? Because God is not human, in fact He is a spirit. This changes everything – we cannot attribute our experiences, failures, and behaviors on Him when He isn’t anything like us! Look at what scripture says about Him.

God is not a man, so he does not lie.He is not human, so he does not change his mind.Has he ever spoken and failed to act?Has he ever promised and not carried it through? Numbers 23:19 NLT

Just as we have attributes which cause us to change our minds, lie, and betray others – God’s attributes cause Him to love, cause Him to illuminate, and cause Him to tell the truth. He doesn’t just tell the truth, He IS the truth! He doesn’t simply have attributes – HE IS THE ATTRIBUTE!

Regardless how many PEOPLE have lied to you, how many PEOPLE have changed their minds, when God tells you He loves and that He will never leave you – He isn’t human, He doesn’t change His mind, nor does He lie!

You are loved… you are unconditionally loved… and as a follower of Jesus, you are locked into a love relatioship with God, a spirit, who will never change His mind about you!

Any promises God has made concerning you, will always and forever be true!